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New streetcars mean more face time

TTC commuters will soon be confronted with a dramatically different seating plan on the city&rsquo;s new streetcars.

By Tess KalinowskiTransportation Reporter

Mon., Sept. 5, 2011

Leave the nail clippers at home and create a personal space bubble with headphones or your smart phone.

That is GO train rider Cindy Smith’s advice to TTC commuters, soon to be confronted with a dramatically different seating plan on the city’s new streetcars — one that will afford them a closer, more direct view of their fellow riders.

The new downtown streetcars (also called LRV or light-rail vehicles), which are supposed to begin arriving in 2013, will incorporate GO-train-style seating that groups two pairs of facing seats into a cozy foursome. That will make it difficult to avoid eye contact with someone clipping their nails or enjoying a garlic sausage on a bun, says Smith.

The former stand-up comic chronicles her Oshawa GO train commute on a blog called, Ride this Crazy Train. It calls out GO riders — a relatively staid group compared to the TTC — for clipping their nails, grinding their dirty feet into the seats and picnicking on smelly snacks.

Putting TTC riders knee-to-knee?

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Well, says Smith, “It’s going to get ugly. It’s a totally different calibre of people.”

Kevin Seto, the TTC’s superintendent of LRV engineering, concedes the new arrangement will be a departure for the TTC and might take some getting used to.

The foursomes don’t so much save space as allow for the LRV components underneath the new low-floor vehicles, he said.

“It is certainly different to any TTC vehicle we have now but (it) is familiar in a GO train arrangement and it is familiar in other European light rail applications,” said Seto of the recently finalized seating plan for the streetcars.

The design also includes some new “family style” seats, about 25-and-a-half inches (64 cm.), or one-and-a-half-times the standard 17-inch (42.5 cm.) seat width.

“We had comments throughout our (public) consultation that we should have wider seats. There are some practical aspects that don’t allow us to do it everywhere,” said Seto. So those have been added where possible.

Some initial grumbling about the new face-to-face seating is to be expected because the four-seat grouping “does put you in more proximity with people you might not want to share a seat with,” acknowledges etiquette expert Louise Fox.

She recommends commuters do their grooming at home, pick up their trash, avoid knocking people over with backpacks and keep their knees no more than 15 cm. apart — “Maybe you do have more than your share of the family jewels but we don’t want to see them,” she wrote in her newsletter.

“We all live together in confined spaces so you just have to block it out and not sink to their level,” said Fox, who doesn’t advise confronting rude people.

Transit riders will encounter people with mental health and other challenges, just as they do on the street, said city Councillor Joe Mihevc, former TTC vice-chair.

“Deal with it creatively. They might need help. They might need a gentle word,” he said. “We all know folks in our neighbourhoods that struggle.”

Mihevc notes that the four-seat configuration affords opportunity for a pleasant nod and greeting and he notes, there’s plenty of evidence people find love on the GO and the TTC.

Milton GO commuter Louroz Mercader agrees that the groupings are great if you’re travelling with family or friends. The downside is that it can be awkward for a fourth person to be stuck listening in on a three-way conversation.

GO commuters also tend to sit on the aisle blocking access to the window seat. Even if those people are working or sleeping, Mercader doesn’t hesitate to ask them to move aside so he can sit. Maybe it’s time for GO to launch a campaign to encourage people to take the window seat, he said.

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